Part 8 (2/2)
”Get out!”
”I'm going to,” said Dot, considering Ralph's e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of amazement an invitation to alight, and she forthwith jumped down from the step of the phaeton.
”You can't mean that Sammy has run off?” cried Ralph. ”Listen to this, Rowdy.”
”What a silly boy!” criticised his sister.
”I don't know,” chuckled Ralph Birdsall. ”'Member how you and I ran away that time, Rowdy?”
”Oh--well,” said his sister. ”We had reason for doing so. But you know Sammy Pinkney's got a father and a mother--And for pity's sake, Rafe, stop calling me Rowdy.”
”And he's got a real nice bulldog, too,” added Dot, reflectively considering any possibility why Sammy should run away. ”I can't understand why he does it. He only has to come back home again. I did it once, and I never mean to run away from home again.”
Meanwhile Tess left Ralph to hitch Scalawag while she marched up the stone steps of the Howbridge house to deliver Ruth's note into Hedden's hand, who took it at once to Mr. Howbridge.
Dot interested the twins almost immediately in another topic. Rowena naturally was first to spy the silver girdle around the Alice-doll's waist.
”What a splendid belt!” cried Rowena Birdsall. ”Is it real silver, Dot?”
”It--it's fretful silver,” replied the littlest Corner House girl. ”Isn't it pretty?”
”Why,” declared Ralph after an examination, ”it's an old, old bracelet.”
”Well, it is old, I s'pose,” admitted Dot. ”But my Alice-doll doesn't know that. _She_ thinks it is a brand new belt. But of course she can't wear it every day, for half the time the bracelet belongs to Tess.”
This statement naturally aroused the twins' curiosity, and when Tess ran back to join them in the front yard the story of the Gypsy basket and the finding of the bracelet lost nothing of detail by being narrated by both of the Corner House girls.
”Oh, my!” cried Rowena. ”Maybe those Gypsies are just waiting to grab you. Gypsies steal children sometimes. Don't they, Rafe?”
”Course they do,” agreed her twin.
Dot looked rather frightened at this suggestion, but Tess scorned the possibility.
”Why, how foolish,” she declared. ”Dot and I were lost once--all by ourselves. Even Tom Jonah wasn't with us. Weren't we, Dot? And we slept out under a tree all night, and a nice Gypsy woman found us in the morning and took us to her camp. Didn't she, Dot?”
”Oh, yes! And an owl howled at us,” agreed the smaller girl. ”And I'd much rather sleep in a Gypsy tent than have owls howl at me.”
”The owl _hooted_, Dot,” corrected Tess.
”Well, what's the difference between a hoot and a howl?” demanded Dot, rather crossly. She did so hate to be corrected!
”Well, of course,” said Rowena Birdsall thoughtfully, ”if you are acquainted with Gypsies maybe you wouldn't be scared. But I don't believe they gave you this bracelet for nothing.”
”No,” agreed Dot quickly. ”For forty-five cents. And we still owe Sammy Pinkney twenty-five cents of it. And he's run away.”
So they got around again to the first exciting piece of news Tess and Dot had brought, and were discussing that when Mr. Howbridge came out to speak to the little visitors, giving them his written answer to Ruth's note. He heard about Sammy's escapade and some mention of the Gypsies.
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